Nuts and Bolts

Erin and Stedman have plain hunting on 3 bells and start in the "Doubles Stage" with dodging in 4-5. Blocks of hunting are linked with what Fabian Stedman called a parting change; in Doubles the pairs in 1-2 and 3-4 cross whilst the bell in 5ths remains in 5ths. The methods extend to "Triples" and upwards by addition of more dodging pairs.

Components

There are two forms of plain hunting, forward and backard, and each of these can be rung as a free standing method, Original. When Original Singles and Reverse Original Singles are used as building blocks of Erin and Stedman, they are known as a "six".

Forward Hunting:

Foward hunting on 3 bells can be rung as a method in its own right, see Complib for further details on Original Singles.

Diagram: Original Singles, change rows and grid.

Backward Hunting:

See Complib for further details on Reverse Original Singles.

Diagram: Reverse Original Singles, change rows and grid.

Erin, at all stages, is constructed only from backward hunting sixes, whereas Stedman at all stages is constructed from alternating forward and backward hunting sixes.

Method Building blocks

Stedman has just 3 elements, forward hunting on 3 bells, backward hunting on 3 bells, and dodging related to each block of hunting.

Plain Hunting on 3 bells generates 6 unique change rows, and in Stedman the foward hunting blocks are called a quick 6, and the reverse hunting are called a slow 6. The method is rung on odd numbers of bells 5, 7, 9 etc., and so the block of 6 changes are associated with dodging by the other working bells, which will for example, be in 4ths and 5ths places on 5 bells.

Diagram: Forward Hunting and dodging.

Diagram: Backward Hunting and dodging.

Stedman is constructed from alternating blocks which are linked by 5ths place, viz::

Diagram: Stedman Twelve.

However, the practical application of the structure is made further complicated by the normal starting point for Stedman, which is the 4th row of a quick 6:

Diagram: Stedman Section.

Stedman - the work of one bell

The work of a single of the five, can be represented as a line with many interesting aspects

Diagram: 27834 Stedman Doubles - The Line for one bell.

The line is characterised by: (Treble) hunting out to 4-5 2 sixes of double dodging, up & down 5 sixes of Slow work 2 sixes of double dodging, up & down One quick six The work in the line is sufficiently complicated for a single bell, being a mixture of whole turns and half turns, wrong way and right way leading and places, and double dodging in 4-5. A handbell ringer is also looking for the ability to concentrate on one bell and allow the other to be rung "relative" to the first. However, the complexity of the line in Stedman makes this very hard, especially at the point where one bell is ringing slow work and the other is migrating between dodging positions. Stedman Doubles is especially hard as there is little time to think between change rows, but the higher numbers bring the difficulty of navigating amongst greater numbers of bells. The solution to this difficulty has parallels with learning the more complex even bell methods, that is to break the work into small, more memorable sections. And specifically learning the Slow Work in 5 pieces of six rows that align with the dodging work in 4-5 is a key technique.

Erin - the work of one bell

Erin can be thought of as Stedman without the quick sixes. This makes the Plain Course just 30 changes long.

Diagram: 27830 Erin Doubles - The Line for one bell.

The line is characterised by: a six, double dodging down 3 sixes of front work a six, double dodging up The work in the line is sufficiently less complicated than that for Stedman and hence can be useful as a practice method to assimiate the rhyhtms of Stedman. However, Erin should be viewed as a perfectly fine method in its own right, not just as an adjunct to Stedman.